A Critique of Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT) and Oocyte Assisted Reprogramming (OAR) By Dolores Meehan One does not need to be an expert in genetics or embryology to critically evaluate the science and the metaphysics behind Altered Nuclear Transfer (ANT) and Oocyte Assisted Reprogramming (OAR). A modest background in the physical and biological sciences coupled with years of defending the dignity of nascent human life in the anti-abortion movement, are sufficient to critique these theories. Consequently, at first glance, the proposal of ANT and OAR offended my pro-life instincts as well as my pro-poor instincts. The idea that an organism can be classified as a non-embryo but embryo-like entity is hauntingly familiar to the argument that early life within the womb is simply a ‘clump of cells’. Secondly, the use of women’s eggs for medical research is morally...

Advances in biological science raise troubling questions about what it means to be human by Wesley J. Smith "By the end of the 21st century," writes Reason magazine science editor Ronald Bailey in his book "Liberation Biology," "the typical American may attend a family reunion in which five generations are playing together. And great-great-great grandma, at 150 years old, will be as vital ... as her 30-year-old great-great grandson with whom she's playing touch football." UCLA futurist Gregory Stock predicts in "Redesigning Humans" that the genetic engineering of progeny for health, intelligence, physical beauty, even sociability, will be so successful that procreation through intercourse will be deemed "too unpredictable," making "laboratory conception ... obligatory rather than optional." Princeton biologist Lee Silver believes fervently, as described in "Remaking Eden,"...

Designer Babies: One Step Closer by Samuel Hensley A recent USA Today article describes the difficulties of Joe Fletcher and his family in Northern Ireland. Joe’s son, Joshua, has Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a condition that usually occurs as a spontaneous genetic mutation.1 If the affected individual reaches reproductive age, the trait is usually heritable as an autosomal dominant disease. Joshua must receive repeated blood transfusions to counteract his inability to produce red blood cells, which carry oxygen to various parts of the body. The only cure for this condition is a stem cell transplant from a compatible donor. Joshua’s older brother is not a compatible donor and the chance of any other future siblings being compatible is one in four. The Fletchers hope to improve those odds significantly by using a technique known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). The process...

Eugenics in the Springtimeby C. Ben Mitchell "Designer babies" will be all the rage this Spring. So, apparently, will be historical amnesia. Historical amnesia is a tragic genetic illness. Sadly, it is affecting increasing numbers of people in our culture. As Santayana has famously said, "those who forget the past are destined to repeat it." Several "designer baby" stories during the last two weeks reinforce Santayana's warning. On 16 February, Britain's first designer baby was born. The British couple hoped to have a child who could supply bone marrow stem cells for the child's ailing sibling. The couple was referred to the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago where they conceived through in vitro fertilization. On 22 February, another British couple was given permission by the Human Fertilisation and Embryo Authority to use IVF to create a child who would be a perfect genetic...

Human Cloning: What’s at Stakeby John F. Kilner and Robert P. George Amid the current debate over cloning not nearly enough attention is being paid to the children who may be produced through cloning. When attention is paid to the clones themselves, often people ask: Are clones human beings? Are they of the same moral status as the rest of us? Do they have souls? A human individual brought into existence by cloning would be a member of the species homo sapiens. He or she would possess a human genetic structure and a rational nature. There is no reason to suppose that such a person would not possess the same basic dignity and be endowed with the same fundamental rights as everybody else. Yet it is predictable that cloned children—as products of ethically dubious asexual reproduction—will be viewed by some as inferior, much the way that many people once looked down on children born out of...

The New Eugenics By George Neumayr EACH YEAR IN AMERICA fewer and fewer disabled infants are born. The reason is eugenic abortion. Doctors and their patients use prenatal technology to screen unborn children for disabilities, then they use that information to abort a high percentage of them. Without much scrutiny or debate, a eugenics designed to weed out the disabled has become commonplace.Not wishing to publicize a practice most doctors prefer to keep secret, the medical community releases only sketchy information on the frequency of eugenic abortion against the disabled. But to the extent that the numbers are known, they indicate that the vast majority of unborn children prenatally diagnosed as disabled are killed. Medical researchers estimate that 80 percent or more of babies now prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. (They estimate that since...

The Slippery Slope of Biotechnologyby Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk The idea of cloning makes people uncomfortable. At least until quite recently, that is. Most people had been ready to declare: “Cloning to make copies of people is wrong— that’s where I draw the line.” Usually they weren’t aware that cloning can be done for other reasons besides making a live-born baby. Often enough, they couldn’t go much further and explain exactly why they objected to cloning; yet they knew that it really didn’t feel right. Now the feelings are beginning to subside, to nobody’s surprise. Early signs of trouble first appeared when researchers began proposing that there was a distinction to be made between therapeutic and reproductive cloning. They championed the idea that therapeutic cloning, which is done to obtain tissues for transplantation, is morally acceptable and distinct from reproductive cloning,...